mathematically - why alien technology is so advanced

ATTN: if you do not understand the concept of number bases other than base 10, you might have some difficulty following this discussion.

Cave man "bill bob" steps out of the slime....and into sunlight. He counts on his fingers ....uh, ger, ah, urg....and so on. When he stops he is at TEN.

For that reason we humans count in base 10.

On another "earth" somewhere else in the universe. Cave man "joe bob" steps into the sunlight and counts on his fingers.........BUT
He only has 4 digits on each hand.
He stop counting at EIGHT.

Base 8 converts to binary much easier than base 10. (1 digit in base eight = 3 digits in binary) Very easy conversion.....and now you have a society that is mentally more equipped for computers than ours.

If both our earth, and their earth started at the same time, how much further advanced technically are they than us?

reply to post by vogon42


The time their civilazation learn binary I think the number of fingers dont matter anyway, but if a civilazation would focus more on beneficial research instead of warfare research would make a greater change

Assuming the Aliens senses were on par with ours and and they had index fingers, they
would have an advantage when it comes to things like computers.

But 4 fingers also comes with its downside like a lesser grip.
Throwing spears or rocks would be pretty difficult to them, so would brachiation assuming their planet has trees.

A species with 4 fingers may not even survive.
We know 5 fingers works
4 fingers may not.

This is one of those tricky math quizzes isn't it...

Are the little Greys not supposed to only have 3 digits, that would mean base 6. Wonder if this would mean an advantage or disadvantage?

I always thought base 12 would be the best.

You can divide things easily into quarters, thirds halves. In base 10, 1/3 repeats indefitely, .33333 etc

In base 12 it doesn't. Think how much easier math would be.

I feel that if we are still unable to even spell Mathematically correctly then that in itself might explain our limitations.

From a mathematical perspective that is....




No , in all seriousness look at our DNA ....it was constructed by vastly intelligent beings that we now proclaim as God.

I will leave it at that.

Peace

reply to post by Destinyone

No, not all intended to be.

Just saying that any number base that is a power of 2, converts to binary very easily.

No need for the division, storing remainders, repeating remainders in reverse order....etc

Exa..... In base 8 society
teacher "Jimmy, what is 10 in binary"
Jimmy - oh thats easy its 1000

Base 10 society
teacher - "Jimmy, whats 10 in binary"
Jimmy - "give me a few minutes while a divide and store remainders......and put them in reverse order" (plays with calculator for a while, and notes remainders......)
UH.....got it.....its 1010

reply to post by nh_ee


I agree with you on this one. Everything I've read/researched has led me to believe that we, as a species, did have some genetic manipulation in our deep past..

So back OT...until you can tell me how many digits those entities who played with us monkeys in the first place had. Your supposition is moot to me.

Originally posted by nh_ee


I feel that if we are still unable to even spell Mathematically correctly then that in itself might explain our limitations.

From a mathematical perspective that is....

No , in all seriousness look at our DNA ....it was constructed by vastly intelligent beings that we now proclaim as God.

I will leave it at that.

Peace

I think we give god too much credit, I don't personally believe in him.
But if he did exist I imagine creating life would be like baking a cake.

You throw all the ingredients together(primordial soup) and you throw it in an oven(planet)
The cake will either sink or stay up.

There are so many variables not taken in to account here, that is makes the op's premis fruitless...

What if they advance technologicly, for reasons of morality, enviornmentally, ect..., only 5 percent as fast as we did? A civilation that is 4000 years ahead of us would be comparatively equal. What if for reasons they evolved technicly speaking at a rate of 0.00001% as fast? What if they simply did not have the necessay raw materials to make the leap in to electronics? I could go on and on.... But my bottom line here is that any time a comparison is made between human understanding and a true alien civilization or technology, it's fruitless out of hand. Infact, although just left of the topic, I find it much more plausable that what we see as alien (meaning from another race of intelligent lifeform from the vast space of the universe) is more than likely local. Meaning past or future decendants, interdimentional, or sub terrainal. It's just oo convienient that the beings and the technology is recognizable and with many parallels to be created by a true alien life form spanning time and space. This is not to say I do not think there are aliens, but rather nothing I have seen or read would make me think we are being visited by something 'alien'..

Originally posted by OmegaOwl
I think we give god too much credit, I don't personally believe in him.
But if he did exist I imagine creating life would be like baking a cake.

You throw all the ingredients together(primordial soup) and you throw it in an oven(planet)
The cake will either sink or stay up.

I'm sure he has people to throw the ingredients together for him. But...what if it's His first attempt at making a cake? Not quite enough salt, vanilla..or maybe beating. Cake 2.;0?


ETA And uh...on topic! I can count in binary, decimal and hexadecimal although the first and the last aren't exactly a hobby...no sir.

Originally posted by HomeBrew
There are so many variables not taken in to account here, that is makes the op's premis fruitless...
.......

Actually the other variables were left out because they are not the topic of this discussion. This discussion is based on one variable.
That variable being a society who are more comfortable with conversion from the commonly used number base, to binary.

example.... If I just pull a number out of the air.....us lets say 427
if thats in base 10, lets convert it to binary......well, its less than 512, and >256 .............

OK lets say thats in base 8
100 010 111

much easier calculation

Originally posted by Wildbob77
I always thought base 12 would be the best.

You can divide things easily into quarters, thirds halves. In base 10, 1/3 repeats indefitely, .33333 etc

In base 12 it doesn't. Think how much easier math would be.

You sir, sound like a Roman!

The English word inch comes from Latin uncia meaning "one twelfth part"

ETA Despite my location as reported in my avatar, I am British. History shows the British have been invaded, pillaged and raped by at least the Vikings, the Romans, the Saxons and the Normans.

Originally posted by Wildbob77
I always thought base 12 would be the best.

You can divide things easily into quarters, thirds halves. In base 10, 1/3 repeats indefitely, .33333 etc

when i put a 1/3 of cup of butter on my raviolis, i don't have an infinite amount of butter pouring out.

point is math and the real world don't alway's make sense. math is used to predict outcomes and ratio's. it doesn't matter if you have 8 fingers or 10.

the real world applications are the same for everyone, regardless of where you are in the universe.

maybe space travel is impossible on earth because we lack certain natural resources and alloys that make space travel possible for other beings in the universe.

our energies and resources are used for profit. 87 octane isn't going to get you into space.

but if the world collaborated and donated it's time and resources to a common cause and each nation putting it's specialties and talents, there's nothing humanity can't accomplish.

and coincidentally, it's God's will. but we blame God for not forcing something that only exists in our hearts.

Originally posted by vogon42
ATTN: if you do not understand the concept of number bases other than base 10, you might have some difficulty following this discussion.

Cave man "bill bob" steps out of the slime....and into sunlight. He counts on his fingers ....uh, ger, ah, urg....and so on. When he stops he is at TEN.

For that reason we humans count in base 10.

On another "earth" somewhere else in the universe. Cave man "joe bob" steps into the sunlight and counts on his fingers.........BUT
He only has 4 digits on each hand.
He stop counting at EIGHT.

Base 8 converts to binary much easier than base 10. (1 digit in base eight = 3 digits in binary) Very easy conversion.....and now you have a society that is mentally more equipped for computers than ours.

If both our earth, and their earth started at the same time, how much further advanced technically are they than us?

edit on 9-1-2012 by vogon42 because: (no reason given)

Non of your mathematical post bears any relevance to the actual question.

What you are comparing is a fork to a chop stick - Both really handy for the people who use them, but useless to many others who don't use one or the other.

reply to post by Just Chris



Really, dude, do you understand the difference between octal, decimal, and binary?

Please consider the math before throwing out the judgement.

reply to post by vogon42


That is a perfect example of why mathematicians should never lead the world in any form.

While numbers can be argued as pure, their proponents fail to grasp a most important point. Reality, the raw world, is a differnt place filled with living creatures that do things that need not start with a bunch of numbers creating from counting how many digits they have and building their sciences from there.

Whatever their attributes eight fingers, ten or tentacles, they work out a system that suits their breed. And then, there is the important contributing factors of intelligence and time. In essence, there can be little comparing humans with ETs. The X factors in that equation is simply too large.

I don't suppose a mathematician can theorize a creature that needs no math or computers?

reply to post by OmegaOwl


You are making assumptions about gravity and atmospheric buoyancy of the aliens. Without a full set of variables anything goes even no fingers at all, but something that would serve as such, there are many examples in nature, look on how resourceful birds are they even use tools...

In Sumer, the natives used base six.

There goes your theory.

Harte